Accountability
Justice Sotomayor accuses conservatives of ‘dismantling’ church-state separation
Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has accused the court’s six-member conservative majority of eroding the barrier between church and state on Tuesday by striking down a Maine policy that barred religious schools from receiving taxpayer-funded tuition aid.
“This Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build,” Sotomayor wrote, dissenting from the 6-3 decision that broke along ideological lines.
“In just a few years, the Court has upended constitutional doctrine,” she added, “shifting from a rule that permits States to decline to fund religious organizations to one that requires States in many circumstances to subsidize religious indoctrination with taxpayer dollars.”
Maine law gives school-age children the right to free public education. But because many rural districts lack a public high school, a workaround was devised that allows these students to attend nearby qualifying private schools with public assistance.
The Maine law at issue in the case had deemed schools with religious instruction ineligible for the program.
The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, sided with a group of Maine parents who sued over the law, with the conservative justices ruling that the challengers’ constitutional religious protections were violated.
“Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” Roberts wrote for the majority. “Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.”
Sotomayor also joined in part a separate dissent written by fellow liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, whose opinion was joined in full by Justice Elena Kagan, who is also a liberal member of the Supreme Court.
Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.
-
Executive3 days ago
Analysis: California’s Shift to the Right Lost on Newsom
-
Constitution4 days ago
The Deep State Ten-point Cleanse
-
Human Interest5 days ago
The Blame Games begin
-
Civilization3 days ago
Unprofessional conduct
-
Civilization2 days ago
FEMA aid withholding – policy?
-
Civilization17 hours ago
Federal government taking shape for next year
-
Civilization3 days ago
Diminishing ‘The Endarkenment’
-
Civilization3 days ago
The Two Thanksgivings Between Halloween and Christmas
The fake Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor does not known the history of the original 13 States/Countries which created the United States. All but one State, Georgia I believe, has formally supported Churches. Christianity is the basic foundation of the United States. Amendment 1 prohibits the Federal Government from creating a national Federal Church organization. But real history is not liked by the “Left”.
Remember, Mr Obama fails both Citizenship requirements of Article 2 Section 1 Paragraph 5, and thus all appointments he made and bills he signed into law, are null and void. The same applies to Mr Biden since the Biden/Harris team selection is invalidated by Mrs Harris since she is at best a naturalized citizen. Learn what the US Constitution states and requires.
If you look at my treatment of the Carson case (Supreme Court repudiates Blaine), I mentioned just that: prior to 1875, many States had close ties to churches. James G. Blaine did this country a monumental disservice, and it’s high time to undue that. I call upon every conservative to introduce Constitutional amendments to repeal their Blaine Amendments. I do not believe any of them would withstand Court scrutiny after Carson.